Werrington dive-under

When the line closed between March and Spalding in 1982,[3] freight traffic, instead of cutting across the western edge of the Fens, was diverted through Peterborough station.

Trains therefore had to use Werrington Junction, located 3 miles (5 km) north of Peterborough railway station, for access to/from the GN/GE line.

Railtrack, Network Rail's predecessor, recognised that the ECML was congested and so upgraded the GN/GE line to accommodate the heavy container trains to and from the east coast ports.

[6] In 2016 Network Rail submitted a Transport and Works Act Order (TWAO) to the Secretary of State for Transport[7] to build either a flyover or a dive-under to avoid the fast lines north of Peterborough and allow passenger and freight trains to access all lines without affecting other faster services.

In summer 2018 Chris Grayling approved the order[8] after a public inquiry favoured the dive-under option in preference to the flyover.

The contractors expect to remove 120,000 cubic metres (4,200,000 cu ft) of earth and the box will weigh 11,000 tonnes (12,000 tons).

A schematic of Werrington Junction. The left hand side details the previous layout and the right hand side the completed layout as at October 2024. New sections of track are shown in red and sections of track dismantled are shown in green